title: Incidental meandering right pulmonary vein, literature review and proposed nomenclature revision.
abstract: We report a case of an anomalous pulmonary vein on chest X-ray resembling a scimitar sign in an 80-year-old female undergoing investigation of syncope. Multislice computed tomography (CT) with multiplanar reformatting and maximum intensity projections demonstrated an aberrant right inferior pulmonary vein coursing inferomedially towards the diaphragm before turning superiorly and draining normally into the left atrium. The diagnosis of an incidental meandering right pulmonary vein was established. The case is used to review the literature on this rare pulmonary anomaly, including pathogenesis, its relationship with scimitar syndrome and scimitar variant, and diagnosis, with an emphasis on the role modern CT techniques can play in non-invasive diagnosis. A revision to the nomenclature of pulmonary vascular anomalies is proposed to help reduce confusion in the literature.
authors.affiliation: Mark Alexander Rodrigues, Gillian Ritchie, John Tallach Murchison, Department of Radiology, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland EH16 4SA, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Mark Alexander
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.forename: Gillian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ritchie
authors.forename: John Tallach
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Murchison
keywords: Incidental findings; Pulmonary veins/abnormalities; Scimitar syndrome/radiography; Tomography; X-ray computed